National Register of Historic Places received NOV 2 ...

NPS Form 10-900 (3-82)

0MB No. 1O24-0018 Exp. 10-31-84

United States Department of the InteriorNational Park Service For NPS use only

National Register of Historic Places received NOV 2 ° Inventory Nomination Form date entered 3See instructions in How to Complete National Register FormsType all entries complete applicable sections _______________________________

1, Name____________________________Historic Resources of the Town of SHerborn, Massachusetts (partial inventory)

historic Hi storical and'Arrhi t.prt.ural; Archaeological: ca. 1674-1930. H

and or common Sherborn Multiple Resource Area

2. Location

street & number Multiple See individual forms and Data Sheets. not for publication

city, town Sherborn _MA vicinity of

state Massachusetts code 025 county Middlesex code 017

3. ClassificationCategory Ownership

district publicbuilding(s) privatestructure y bothsite Public Acquisitionobject NA in process

X Mul ti pi e being considered

Resource Area

Status_ x occupied

x unoccupied work in progress

AccessibleX yes: restricted

_X.~ yes: unrestricted no

Present UseX agriculture X commercial X educational

entertainmentX government

industrialmilitary

museum_ X_ park

X private residence X religious

scientifictransportationother:

4. Owner of Propertyname Multiple See attached list.

street & number

city, town vicinity of state

5. Location of Legal Descriptioncourthouse, registry of deeds, etc. Middlesex County Registry of Deeds

street & number 208 Cambridge Street

city, town Cambridge state Massachusetts

6. Representation in Existing SurveysInventory of the Historic Assets of

thp r.nmmnnu/Pal t.h of this Pr°Perty been determined eligible? yes no

date 1981 See Data Sheets for individual numbers. federal state county local

depository for survey records Massachusetts Historical Commission

city,town 80 Boylston Street, Boston state Massachusetts

tm PGSCriptlOn Sherborn Multiple Resource Area: Sherborn, Massachusetts

Condition Check one Check one_ %_ excellent __ deteriorated X unaltered _X_ original site

__ ruins _JC_ altered _X- moved date Se£-J-nxlividua1 forms.fair __ unexposed

Describe the present and original (iff known) physical appearance

The boundaries Vf'tlie ^h^borrt Multiple Resource Area ai^e the incorporated town limits of Sherborn, Massachusetts. Sherborn is located in southeastern Middlesex County, and about 21 miles southwest of Boston. The town contains 17.12 square miles, or about 11,000 acres. Its extreme north-south length is about 5 miles and it averages 4 miles from east to west. The town is bounded by Natick on the north and northeast, Mill is on the south, Holliston on the southwest, Ashland on the west, and Framingham on the northwest; Dover lies across the Charles River on the east, while Medfield is across the river to the southeast. Most of Sherborn's territory lies between the Charles River and Popping Brook, which roughly define part of its east and west boundaries.

Sherborn's geological structure is syenite. Primitive crystalline rock outcroppings are abundant in the southwestern and eastern parts of town. There are many glacial outwash features: deep deposits of very coarse drift consisting of large boulders and fragments of ledges are situated in north Sherborn; altered mica slate lies in the central and western part of town; and alluvial formations occur in the valleys, meadows, and beneath ponds. Topographically, Sherborn is located in a rugged upland watershed area between the Sudbury and Charles drainage systems. Characterized by rolling hills running northwest/southeast, Sherborn has 22 hills of 250-foot elevation or greater. The highest elevations are located in north Sherborn. Brush Hill and Peter's Hill rise to heights of 396 and 290 feet, respectively. Low elevations of 120 to 150 feet are located in southeast and south Sherborn, along the Charles River and along the Boggestow Brook valley.

Sherborn is rich in water resources, including six streams, numerous springs, and two large ponds. Boggestow Brook drains the southwestern section of town. Large areas of bog and swamp are scattered throughout the town as well approximately 16 percent of Sherborn's acreage is swamp, marsh, and bog. Most drain south and east into the Charles River. Important bodies of water include Farm Pond, a 125-acre, spring-fed glacial kettle pond that supported a late 19th/early 20th century ice business, and Little Farm Pond (25 acres).

HISTORIC OVERVIEW

Sherborn today is a suburban semi rural town on the outer fringes of the Greater Boston area. Development in recent years has occurred primarily along the main highways from Boston; much of the rest of the town remains essentially rural in character.

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National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form

Sherborn MRA Continuation sheet$ nerborn< Massachusetts____Item number 7__________Page j

Early English settlement began first along the Charles River, with the establishment of two or three garrison houses in the 1650s, and by 1680, a sawmill. Referred to initially as "Boggestow," the town was incorporated as "Sherborne" in 1674. KingPhilip's War (1675-1676) put a temporary halt to the area's initial development, but scattered farmsteads were reestablished shortly thereafter, and a town center began to grow at the intersections of Main Street (the major north/south roadway), Farm Road (running east/west), Maple Street, and Washington Street. Agriculture in particular, subsistence farming provided the economic base throughout both the Colonial and Federal periods, along with four saw- and gristmills and numerous orchards. By the 1830s, small-scale local industries associated with agricultural pursuits (such as edge-tool manufacturing and gunsmithing) emerged.

Sherborn's marshy lowlands provided ideal conditions for the willow basket industry in the mid 19th century (both as a source of materials and as a place in which to soak them), as well as for cranberry propagation. Leatherdressing and shoemaking, both family industries in Sherborn, also held ties to the marshlands one manufacturer, Eleazer Dowse, dug pits in the boggy lowlands in which to soak his hides.

Prior to the Civil War, development in Sherborn was slow. In 1870, however, the Framingham and Mansfield railroad, constructed through the heart of Sherborn, provided a spur to agricultural pursuits. Cranberry production increased as it became easier to transport crops outside of town, and by the late 19th century, Sherborn also supported as many as 20 cidermills. By the 1870s both cider and shoes, Sherborn's primary industries, could be shipped out of town by railway. Its manufactories remained primarily small-scale industries, however, and the community, still far enough removed from Boston, continued as an agricultural center. While a distinct town center had evolved by this time, agriculture continued to develop, with dairy farms emerging in outlying areas.

Between 1900 and 1930, the eastern and southern portions of Sherborn, along the Charles River, sustained some development as country estates for the very wealthy. The 18th century roadways remained in use, guaranteeing the town its essentially rural character. It was not until after the Second World War that extensive road construction took place. Some suburbanization has occurred in recent decades, but the general character of Sherborn at present is one of extensive open space, due in part to the amount of land devoted to agriculture and to the large proportion of acreage held in private ownership. Sherborn also contains more than 600 acres of town forest* Commercial establishments comprise but a few acres, and there is no industrial acreage in town.

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Sherborn MRA Continuation sheet3h e rborn. Massachusetts_____Item number 7

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PATTERNS

Factors affecting Sherborn's development are discussed below by period. Parenthetical numbers refer to date of construction and inventory numbers. For more specific locations, please refer to Sherborn maps, included with this nomination. For more detailed information on the significance of Sherborn's historical development, please see part 8 of this nomination. 1654-1776

The nutritious grasses of the Charles River lowlands, or "wet prairies," attracted the first English settlers to Boggestow, later Sherborn. In addition, they found forests of white and black oak, hickory, chestnut, pine, and hemlock trees, as well as white cedar swamp and land that had already been cleared by members of the Nipmuck tribe. Initially (1652-1680), English settlement was confined to south Sherborn near the Charles River. While land grants were given to individuals as early as 1643 and the first settlers arrived by 1652, the town of Sherborn was not incorporated until 1674. Early settlement of about 20 families concentrated in the southeastern areas. Several of the early settlers built timber-framed, two-story central-chimney houses, one room deep. While none of these so-called "garrison" houses remain, Sherborn does retain several First Period timber-framed residences. (The earliest portions of the Morse-Barber House, 46 Forest Street [#35], Sherborn's oldest structure, are said to date to 1674. The house was more than doubled in size and extensively remodelled in the early 19th century, and now appears as a Federal-period house with Greek Revival-style elements.)

Native trails served as the primary highways until the late 17th century. In the 1650s, the first road laid out by English settlers linked the homes of two of Sherborn's early families, the Morses and the Bullards. Little more than a passable way, by 1676 the road joined southeastern Sherborn to Medfield across the Charles River by way of a bridge.

Two years after the town's incorporation, King Philip's War slowed Sherborn's development, as some of its settlers may have sought shelter elsewhere. Beginning in 1676, scattered farms were established throughout the town. As early as 1680, Thomas Sawin constructed a sawmill to the north of Brush Hill Road on Chestnut, now Course, Brook. During the early 1680s, Sawin provided building materials for the town's first meetinghouse. (No features of the mill are known to remain.)

By the mid 1670s, a portion of what is today known as Main Street (formerly called County Road) had been laid out. With the construction on the hill south of Edward's Plain of the first meetinghouse in 1680-1683, a tiny village

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Sherborn MRA Continuation sheet Sherborn, Massachusetts____Item number 7___________Page 3

center, located four miles west of the Charles, began to evolve. There were but three dwellings at the town center by mid 18th century only one, the Flagg House, 22 Washington Street (ca. 1740, #151) remains, and it was substantially altered in 1772 and again, ca. 1820. Four radial thoroughfares converged near the meetinghouse including Farm Road, Main, Washington, 99d Maple (formerly Dirty Meadow) Streets. Crosslinks were provided by Green Lane, the upper part of Hunting Lane, and Perry Street. These crossroads form the core of what is being nominated as the Sherborn Center Historic District.

But aside from a few buildings at the town center-including, by 1728, the first village schoolhouse--Sherborn's settlement remained scattered. By the early 18th century, land had been cleared for farming in virtually every part of the town, both close to and distant from the Charles River. By mid century, 643 inhabitants lived within Sherborn's bounds.

Agricultural enterprises throughout the first century of settlement were primarily grazing, with some dairying for home use as well. Orchards were also planted. Sherborn's rocky but fertile soil proved ideal for apple growing. By 1750, a number of Sherborn residents had established orchards on their property for family consumption. Among the most well known was the Rev. Samuel Porter, for whom the Porter Apple, a sweet yellow apple still raised in Sherborn, was named.

The 18th century residential building stock was primarily the simple, central-chimney, two-story house, with some central-chimney cottages as well. A number of these buildings, most of which were farmhouses, remain, particularly in the southern and eastern sections of town. Several twin-chimney, two-story houses exist at the town center and along major roadways. These buildings will be discussed in greater detail in the following pages of this narrative.

In 1728, Sherborn's 17th century meetinghouse was replaced by a new, larger building to serve the town's growing population (now more than 400). That same year, the town's first schoolhouse was built on the meetinghouse common. This second meetinghouse was enlarged in the 1770s and demolished in 1829-1830, when the large Greek Revival-style structure on North Main Street, still standing, was erected.

At least one tavern Richard Sanger's Tavern (no longer extant) was built in Sherborn Center during the 18th century. It was a long, low structure, essentially domestic in scale and massing, and boasting a central chimney, two-story plan, and eleven doors. Sanger's Tavern stood on the site of the

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Sanford House, built in 1870 at 3-5 North Main Street (#81).

In the years prior the Revolutionary War, three cemeteries existed in Sherborn: Old South Cemetery, on South Main Street (established 1655, #807); the Farm Cemetery, on Farm Road (founded in 1688, #801), and the Central Cemetery in Sherborn Center (first burial 1686, #805). Today these burial grounds are generally rectangular in plan and are surrounded by fieldstone walls. They contain gravestones composed of a variety of materials, including slate, limestone, and sedimentary stones.

1776-1865

It was not until after the Revolution that a recognizable town center began to evolve around the meetinghouse, a town center that consisted of more than a few scattered buildings and formed the first large population node away from the river. The years between the Revolution and the Civil War were Sherborn's greatest period of growth. A Sherborn map of 1788 indicates that by that year, most of the town's present major north-south, east-west arteries were in existence, with the exception of roads yet to be cut through the marshy lowlands. Along with Main Street, Western Avenue was another major north-south artery (between Holliston and Framingham), known during the 18th century as "the Way to the Sudbury River." By the late 18th century, Sherborn was linked to Framingham by four roads: Coolidge and Kendall Streets, which had linked Main Street with the Eames Farm in what became south Framingham in 1700; "The Old Road to Framingham," which was composed of Green Lane, a section of Hunting Lane, Perry Street, and Merchant Street (currently part of Framingham); "The New Road to Framingham," now Prospect Street and the southern part of Coolidge Street, and Western Avenue, which served as another link between the road to Holliston and Framingham.

In the early 19th century, two areas of relatively dense settlement developed along the major roadways of Sherborn Center, while elsewhere in the town scattered farmsteads remained predominant. The first of these is being nominated to the National Register as the Sherborn Center Historic District (Area A). In addition to the second meetinghouse, burial ground, school, and Sanger Tavern, by the beginning of the 19th century the center also included two general stores and a number of substantial residences.

The majority of pre-Civil War residences in the town center district are well-Grafted Federal-style buildings, the work of local housewrights. Two men whose work was particularly well executed and finely detailed were Ebenezer Mann (the Col. Calvin Sanger House, 8 Washington Street, 1819, #147) and Bowen Adams (the Bowen Adams house, 27 South Main Street, ca. 1815, #127; and the

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Dr. Oliver Everett House, 1 North Main Street, 1833, #79). Good examples of si de-hall-pi an Greek Revival-style dwellings were built at 15 North Main Street (the Amos Bigelow House, ca. 1845, #85) and at 27 Washington Street (the Bickford-Blanchard House, 1849, #152). Both feature wide corner and fascia boards, as well as front-facing pedimented gables. Several small cottages, 1 1/2 stories with central halls, were constructed along Main Street as well: for instance, the Horatio Coolidge House at 39 South Main Street (ca. 1825, #131) and the Joshua Holbrook House at 5 South Main Street (ca. 1840, #126). The town center's grandest prewar residence, an Italianate-style villa, was built for George H. Clark at 16 North Main Street (ca. 1854, #86).

By 1830, the town center contained its second church, the result of a schism between the members of the First Parish Church (now housed in their third meetinghouse, 1830, #148) and the more conservative Trinitarians. Pilgrim Church, home for the latter group, was also built in 1830 (#127).

The second of the two nodes of late 18th and early 19th century development, on Edward's Plain, is being nominated as the Edward's Plain-Dowse's Corner Historic District (Area B). Between 1780 and 1800, ten new residences were added to the existing seven, as returning soldiers and new settlers moved into the area. Edwards's Plain evolved north of the meetinghouse. The area was named for Edward West, one of the town's first selectmen and, in 1694, its first schoolmaster. West was granted a large tract of land ca. 1,679 that stretched from Sherborn center north to Everett Street. The family of Eleazer Dowse was among the first to settle the area, after fleeing from Charlestown on the eve of the battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. Dowse was the first to'use the district's boggy lowlands as a site for a leatherworks. The family was engaged in tanning and whipmaking well into the 19th century, and their influence and presence were widespread in the area.

Between 1790 and the Civil War, Edward's Plain grew as a light manufacturing district, its residences, barns, and small shops forming a linear configuration north along North Main Street as far as the swampy area just short of the Natick line. In addition to the Dowse family, other tradesmen in the neighborhood included an edge-tool manufacturer, blacksmiths, gunsmiths, wheelwrights, a coffinmaker, whipmakers, tanners, and shoe manufacturers and cider-mill operators. Most worked in their houses or in small outbuildings nearby. Many of the buildings associated with these nine industries remain; in some cases, shop buildings have been converted into residences (for example, the Capt. Henry Partridge edge-tool manufactory, 35-33 North Main Street, 1796, #99; and Bigelow Cider Mill, 47-49 North Main Street, ca. 1850, #97). Together, these houses and outbuildings reflect the family industries that their inhabitants were engaged in; they comprise a fine collection of

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Federal and Greek Revival-style structures, as well.

Other building stock in the district ranges from mid-18th century country Georgian buildings, such as the Benjamin Bullard House, 36 North Main Street (ca. 1760, #92) to a well-crafted Queen Anne-style residence, the Jonathan Hoi brook House, 44 North Main Street (1880, #95). The latter is something of an anomaly for this part of Sherborn, where most of the present structures were constructed during the district's mid-19th century heyday.

In 1800, Deacon William Clark established a general store at what is today 84 North Main Street (the store is no longer standing) and by 1824, Capt. Daniel Paul was keeping a tavern at 41 North Main Street (ca. 1760, ca. 1824; #94).

During the mid 19th century,-a number of roadways were platted across Sherborn's low-lying, swampy areas. Eliot Street, laid out in 1830, ran northeast/southwest and was initially called "The New Road Across the Plain." Lake Street's northernmost section was laid out across marshland in 1852. Also during the 1850s, Washington Street was extended westward to Woodland Street through a swamp, Dirty Meadow. North Main Street was extended beyond Everett Street to Natick in 1857, and the eastern portion of Hunting Lane was platted in 1858. For the next ninety years, from the eve of the Civil War to the post-World War II era, Sherborn's roads remained essentially unchanged.

1865-1930

Sherborn experienced little new construction and development in the decades following the Civil War. Most important for Sherborn's post-Civil War development was the establishment of the Framingham and Mansfield Railroad in 1869-1870. Running northwest-southeast through the eastern portion of Sherborn, around Sherborn Center, the railroad resulted in the construction of three wood-frame stations by the 1880s. Only one remains formerly at the end of Powderhouse Lane, now Railroad Avenue, the station now serves as a private home and is located elsewhere in Sherborn. Two other stations, on Whitney Street and Forest Street, are no longer standing. While the presence of the rail line meant that produce and manufactured goods especially cider, cranberries, and milk products could be shipped elsewhere, industrial expansion remained limited, and population increases during this period were slight. The northwestern corner of Sherborn, adjoining Framingham, experienced the greatest growth as workers from the Para Rubber Company of South Framingham (established 1882) moved into the area. In 1924-1925, this section of Sherborn was ceded to Framingham, and after this point, population size leveled off at just under 1,000.

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By the turn of the century, Sherborn was becoming the home for a small number of wealthy Bostonians who chose to build summer estates near the Charles River. Until recent decades, when there has been some development through subdivision, this trend toward estate construction constituted most of Sherborn's building. Early roadways were not upgraded until after World War II, which further helped to maintain Sherborn as an essentially rural, agricultural community.

Archi tecture

The architecture section that follows is organized by building type. Residential structures are discussed first and are the most numerous component of the nomination. Home shops and outbuildings, an integral part of Sherborn's housing stock, are included in this section. Presidential structures, including municipal, ecclesiastical, and commercial buildings, are then discussed, as well as former manufactories now used as residences. Observations in this section are drawn from the Sherborn survey and from the state survey team's report on the community.

RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

Overwhelmingly residential, Sherborn's building stock is largely the work of local housewrights, though Boston-based architects were responsible for some of the town's early 20th century public buildings and more substantial residences. Traditionally, wood has been the primary building material. In general, residences do not exceed 2 1/2 stories in height. Stylistically, the town's houses range from First Period "saltboxes" to early 20th century Colonial Revival-style country estates and post-World War II suburban homes. The bulk of the town's National Register-contributing housing dates from the last half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, Sherborn's years of greatest growth. Sherborn's residential character is still defined by the clusters of well-preserved and maintained 19th century residences strung out along Main Street and its axes, with other 18th, 19th, and 20th century houses, some modest, others quite lavish, dotting the still rural surrounding areas. Many house!ots retain outbuildings and landscape features, including barns, sheds, gazebos, fieldstone walls, granite gateposts, and some original plantings.

First Period (pre 1730)

First Period houses are located in virtually every part of Sherborn. Of the 175 structures included in the Sherborn Historic Resource Survey, nineteen contain segments believed to have been built before 1735. These dwellings,

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their main facades generally facing south, are situated close to major thoroughfares and crossroads; they are scattered throughout Sherborn. A number of Sherborn's First Period houses were built as two-story, single-pile half houses and have since become the nuclei of larger residences. Whenever the original siting has been retained, significant archaeological potential is probable.

The Morse-Barber House, 46 Forest Street (#35) in south Sherborn contains what is probably the oldest half house in town its eastern portion may have been built as early as ca. 1674. The building was enlarged in 1814 (more than doubled in size) and remodelled ca. 1830 so that it now resembles a Federal-style house with Greek Revival elements. In addition to sheltering members of the Wood and Morse families, this building also served as Sherborn's first place of worship until the first meetinghouse was erected in 1680.

The Bullen-Stratton-Cozzen House, 52 Brush Hill Road (ca. 1680, #1), is another building that retains First Period elements despite numerous modifications and enlargements (ca. 1760; ca. 1840; ca. 1910). Its nucleus is a small "saltbox" now located in the rear of the building's eastern portion a slanted ceiling and thick walls insulated with birch bark are all that remain of the earliest dwelling. The western portion of the house a five-bay, central entry, 2 1/2 story Georgian-style building, with 9/6 sash, dates to the ca. 1760 enlargement. A Greek Revival entryway, incorporating Doric pilasters, wide entablature, and 3/4 sidelights, dates to approximately 1840, while a Colonial Revival-style side porch is an early 20th century addition.

One early dwelling that has sustained less change than some earlier examples is the Deacon William Leland House, 27 Hollis Street (1717, #44). The 2 1/2-story frame vernacular building has a gable roof and massive central chimney. Fenestration consists of narrow windows with 9/6 sash, and the door surround is plain vertical boards topped by a dentilated horizontal board.

Sherborn has several other houses that retain distinctive First Period profiles: two stories tall, one room deep, with large central chimney, steeply pitched roof, and, often, with an integral projecting rear leanto. These include the Sawin-Bullen-Bullard House, 60 Brush Hill Road (ca. 1680, #2), the Asa Sanger House, 70 Washington Street (ca. 1684, #155), the Daniel Morse III House, 210 Farm Road (ca. 1710, #33), and the Joseph TwitcheTT House, 32 Pleasant Street (ca. 1710, #117). All have sustained various alternations over time, but their shape and massing still identify them asFirst Period structures.

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Georgian Period (1725-1780)

Sherborn contains several substantial Georgian dwellings. At 60 Washington Street, the Richard Sanger House (1734, #154) is Sherborn's only Georgian-period building to retain its original gambrel roof. A lean-to was integrated into the structure in 1775. The building has a symmetrical five-bay facade, with narrow, simply enframed 9/6 windows. Narrow-pane sidelights and a triangular pediment frame the front entryway. The house is located south of Sherborn Center in a rural area that retains aspects of its premodern appearance.

The Flagg House, 22 Washington Street (ca. 1740, #151) is the oldest surviving residence in the town center.The house has undergone several alterations, the most ambitious of which occurred in 1772 when the Rev. Elisha Brown, minister of First Parish church, literally had the original house a two-room-square plan cut in half and a large, central hallway inserted. In the attic, two chimneys with ragged edges once formed a single, massive stack.

The Morse-Tay-Leland-Hawes House, 266 Western Avenue (ca. 1700, #168), consists of a 2 l/Z-story, side-gabled main block with a single-story rear wing. The building's elegant, high-style surface treatments were probably added by Dr. Jonathan Tay in the 1770s. Flanked by narrow Doric pilasters, the front door is surmounted by a semicircular fanlight containing Gothic tracery; crowning the entrance is a dentilated pediment. The northern, main facade is capped by a dentilated cornice.

Federal Period (1780-1830)

While vernacular expressions of the Georgian style continued until ca. 1815, well-crafted Federal-period houses began to be built at the turn of the 19th century. Together, they comprise one of Sherborn's most significant architectural resources. While varying in scale and plan, the most widely built type was a two-story, rear-wall chimney-plan with a pitched roof. Hip-roof structures with twin interior chimneys were also built, a number with more elaborate Federal-style decorative details than other buildings of the period.

Located primarily in Sherborn's center, these houses reflect the prosperity of their turn-of-the-century owners and the prodigious talents of local housewrights most notably, Ebenezer Mann and Bowen Adams.

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Ebenezer Mann's most architecturally sophisticated residence was built in 1819 for the town's most affluent citizen Col. Calvin Sanger, at various times lawyer, businessman, real estate magnate, cotton factory owner, as well as founder of Sangerville, Maine. Col. Sanger also operated one of Sherborn's first general stores. Situated at 8 Washington Street (#147) on a site that previously held the home of Rev. Samuel Porter, the Col. Sanger House features Sherborn's most elegant Federal-style entrance, with sidelights and fanlight containing diamond- and circular-shaped leaded glass. The attenuated Tuscan columns of the open entry porch support a dentil ated entablature. Beneath the hipped roof runs a dentilated cornice. The interior reflected the wealth, prominence, and sophistication of its owner, with its panelling once complemented by French wallpaper by duFour that depicted the Bay of Naples. The two-story main block of Col. Sanger's house was at one time flanked by a laundry ell, later removed to 5 Zion's Lane (#174).

Ebenezer Mann was also responsible for the Eleazer Goulding House, 137 Western Avenue (1825, #164). Located in the countryside rather than in town, the Goulding House is more restrained and simple than the Sanger House. Its main entrance is more understated, with attenuated Doric pilasters, shallow fan, and dentilated cornice forming the entrance surround.

The housewright Bowen Adams was active in Sherborn during the first four decades of the 19th century. His highly compact hip-roofed house with twin interior chimneys is situated on a pedestal-like rise overlooking Farm Road at 27 South Main Street (ca. 1815, #128) in Sherborn Center. Adams was also the builder of the DrTUliver Everett House at 1 North Main Street (#79). Built in 1833, this house displays a fine entryway, Sherborn's best example of the transition from the Federal to the Greek Revival style. The Federal influence is evident in the entryway's 3/4 sidelights and elliptical fanlight, while the pilasters incorporate a distinctive Greek key design into the door surround.

The prosperity of early 19th century tradesmen and manufacturers is reflected in several Federal-style houses on Edward's Plain. Sherborn's houses of this period have the five-bay, symmetrical facade typical of the style. For example, both the Benjamin Dowse House, 91 North Main Street (ca. 1830, #108), home of a master whipmaker, and the Henry Partridge House, 51 North Main Street (ca. 1820, #98), residence of an edge-tool manufacturer, are five-bay, center-entry buildings. The Dowse House has an elegant door surround composed of a full-length, si del it entrance and crowned by an elliptical arch. Equally fine is the Partridge house's entryway, with 3/4 sidelights and elliptical arch. Both buildings consists of a 2 1/2-story main block with attached rear ell; in both cases, the ell predates the main structure. The Moses Perry House, 83 North Main Street (ca. 1810, #105), similarly, is a Z 1/Z-story main

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block placed in front of an older ell (ca. 1782). Moses Perry built his home shortly after establishing a tannery on the property in 1800.

A number of modest, 1 1/2-story cottages of the later Federal period, with central entries but varied chimney placement, are scattered along North and South Main Streets. A well-preserved example is the Sparhawk House, 86 North Main Street (1833, #107). Two closely set chimneys (probably mid-late 19th century replacements) are centered on the ridge; the facade is dominated by the center door surround, which consists of attenuated pilasters crowned by a closed elliptical fan. At ^9 South Main Street, the five-bay, center-entry Horatio Coolidge House (ca. 1825, #131) is another example of the transition to the Greek Revival style; its doorway, framed by incised pilasters, is capped by a flat lintel that is also incised.

Sherborn's landscape is also dotted with 1 1/2-2 story buildings that were originally attached to larger structures. For example, 5 Zion's Lane is the former laundry ell of the Col. Calvin Sanger house, which was built at £ Washington Street in 1819 (#147). It was moved to Zion's Lane (formerly Pratt's Lane) in the 1850s. A Colonial Revival-style fanlight was added to the building's side-placed entryway in the early 20th century, but the ell otherwise remains unchanged, retaining its narrow corner and fascia boards.

The Joseph Cleale House, 147 Western Avenue (ca. 1815-1820, #165), exhibits both Federal and Greek Revival features and is one of Sherborn's most stylish farmhouses. Its rectangular main block includes symmetrical, recessed entrance porches at the two corners of its western, front-facing gable end. While not a unique form in Sherborn, the Cleale House is the oldest remaining example of the type in town. The main block is surmounted by a steeply pitched gable, while a hip roof crowns the rear wing. The Cleale House has unusual pointed-arch fans surmounting the main-block windows.

Early Industrial Period (1830-1870)

In the decades before the Civil War, Sherborn experienced a building boom; related to the growth of the town's cottage industries, particularly shoe manufacturing. Residential construction consisted primarily of side-hall examples of the Greek Revival and Italianate styles. Also built during this period were modest side-hall and L-shaped-plan cottages. Though displaying little adornment, most of these structures do have decorative brackets in either Italianate or Gothic Revival style. Only one truly high-style residence was built in Sherborn during this time an Italianate-style villa derived from patternbooks.

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Greek Revival Style (1820-1860)

The Greek Revival temple form was extremely popular, particularly at Dowse's Corner and at other locations along Main Street. In the vicinity of Dowse's Corner alone, eight houses were erected between 1844 and 1850 in the Greek Revival style.

The Joseph Dowse Sr. House, 100 North Main Street (#110) was built in 1844 by a member of the Dowse family of leatherdressers. Joseph Dowse built a cottage with an ell on the site shortly after the Revolution, in 1783, and incorporated a small portion of that ell into the present house (the rest was destroyed during the 1844 construction). While temple-form houses were usually constructed with their front gable facing the road, this house continues the earlier tradition of having the main facade face south, in this case away from the road. Rectangular in plan, the house rises 2 1/2 stories to a pedimented attic. Wide corner and fascia boards define the edges of the building, and a single-story porch, supported by fluted Tuscan columns, runs across the length of the main facade.

Adjacent to Joseph Dowse's house, the Nathaniel Henry Dowse House, 102 North Main Street (1854, #111), was the home of Joseph's grandson.The building is unusual for its high degree of surface plasticity, and its decorative elements show a wide variety of Greek Revival-style treatments: fully enframed and pedimented windows, deeply recessed entrance surmounted by heavy pedimented entablature with triangular cornice, and an open porch on the building's southern ell, supported by Doric columns. The well-built house was clearly the home of a prosperous family.

South of Dowse's Corner, Sherborn Center also has several fine examples of the Greek Revival style. The Amps Bigellow House, 15 North Main Street (ca. 1845-1850, #85), is one example.This building's massing and surface treatment are similar to those of 102 North Main Street. Essentially L-shaped in plan, its main block and south wing were probably built at the same time. Wide Doric corner boards, capped by capitals, frame the building, and the gable end, which faces the roadway, includes a triangular pediment. Of particular note is the adjacent barn of the same period, which is of flush-board construction and contains a round-arched window in its gable. The home of Dr. Albert Blanchard, 27 Washington Street (1849, #152), is another solid example of the front-facing gable with side-hal1-pian sty!e.

Outside the town center, several fine examples of the Greek Revival style are also extant. At 18 Maple Street, a short distance from the town center, the Thomas Fleming House (ca. 1bt>u, #62) was built by a willow-basket weaver in

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the classic Greek Revival style and form. Three bays wide and 1 1/2 stories tall, the gable-fronted main facade includes a side-placed entry framed by simple entablature. The Clark-Northrup House, 93 Maple Street (ca. 1855, #70), located about a mile from the town center, is a 2 I/2-story frame structure with five-bay facade. Wide Doric corner and fascia boards frame the building; Doric columns support the porch's heavy entablature and cornice.

Gothic Revival and Italianate Styles (1840-1870)

Sherborn's most distinguished mid-19th century residence is the George H. Clark House, 16 North Main Street (ca. 1853, #86). Its irregular plan, distinctive profiles, loggias, and balconies suggest that it was derived from the romantic patternbooks of Andrew Jackson Downing. The building, originally home of a Sherborn storekeeper, is an Italianate-style villa with an irregular, roughly T-shaped plan that represents a departure from the rectangular and L-shaped plans of most of Sherborn's dwellings. It is believed that the building's architect was Alexander Rice Esty of Framingham. The building stands partially sheltered from the main street by a grove of trees rimming its semicircular driveway. Rising 2 1/2 stories to a flat roof supported on sawcut brackets, the house has a projecting 2 1/2-story single-bay tower. Full-length windows give on to two balconies supported by scrolled brackets and bounded by turned balusters. An arcaded loggia runs from the tower's ground floor along the main block, while a second loggia flanks the ell's south wall. Fenestration consists of square-headed 6/6 windows enframed by massive segmental arches. The barn associated with the property is of flush-board construction with round-arched windows and doorways. It wide bracketed gable roof displays return eaves. The barn is similar in construction and surface treatments to the Amos Bigelow House barn, opposite.

The Charles Port Dowse House, 112 North Main Street (1859, #113) shows elements of both the Gothic Revival and Italianate styles. Its irregular plan, steeply pitched gables, and broad front porch with wide pointed arches place the Dort Dowse House squarely in the mid 19th century romantic cottage tradition. While the triple roundhead window centered in the second-floor gable is Italianate in feeling, the quatrefoil windows under the eaves are typical of the Gothic Revival style.

Late Industrial and Early Modern Periods (1870-1930)

The building boom that Sherborn experienced during the 1840s and 1850s did not continue in the decades following the Civil War. Sherborn has only a few examples of well-built residences in the styles of the late 19th and early

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20th centuries, prior to a small surge in the first quarter of this century when wealthy Bostonians would establish summer estates in the town.

Second Empire Style (1860-1880)

The Charles Holbrook House, 137 South Main Street (ca. 1870, #139), is small in scale but exhibits some of the high-style qualities of a Second Empire-style mansion many times its size. The bracketed entry porch and side porch (both with low, turned balusters), polygonal bay, ornate dormer enframements, and a boxy slate-shingled roof all contribute to the building's sophisticated appearance. It is set well back from the road on a semicircular drive, and is framed by mature trees and manicured shrubs.

In the town center, the George Fleming House, 5 Washington Street (ca. 1880, #146), was at one time similar in size, scale, detail, and plan to the Charles Holbrook House. After fire destroyed its mansard roof in the 1940s, however, the building was altered with the application of a dormered gable roof.

Victorian Gothic (1860-1890)

The Leland-Hawes House, 31 South Main Street (ca. 1835-1840, ca. 1870; #129), is at base a Greek Revival-style, side-hall-plan building that received Victorian Gothic surface treatments in the early 1870s. Lacy punch-work details were added to the gable eaves, and an arch with repeated trefoil punch work was added on the front gable.

Queen Anne Style (1875-1900)

There is only one example of the full-blown Queen Anne style in Sherborn the Jonathan Holbrook House, 44 North Main Street (1880, #95). Of irregular plan, the house rises Z 1/2 stories to a steep-pitched gable roof. On the building's southwest corner is a square, four-story tower crowned with a mansard roof. The textured surfaces of the exterior with scalloped, imbricated, and bevelled shingles throughout, and curved half-timbering on the main gable as well as the turned porch posts, punch-work transom, and Chinese fretwork-adorned balcony all contribute to the building's active and energetic facade.

Twentieth Century Styles (1900-1930)

In the early years of the 20th century, Sherborn's popularity as a location for country estates for wealthy Bostonians began to grow. Most of these

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estates were located near the Charles River in southeast Sherborn. Some simply enlarged or altered existing 18th and 19th century farmhouses. Others, however, built far more elaborate estates, particularly in the Colonial Revival style. One resident even built a mansion in the style of an English country estate.

The Charles D. Lewis House, 81 Hunting Lane (ca. 1905, #48), is one such estate! Built as a summer residence and gentleman's farm, the house was sited at the edge of a circular drive amidst acres of rocky hills and orchards. (Today, much of that acreage has been taken over by suburban development.) The house represents a marriage of the Shingle and Colonial Revival styles. The rambling V-shaped plan, asymmetrical fenestration, and weathered- shingle exterior bespeak the rusticity and informality of the Shingle Style, while the porte cochere and Palladian windows are elements of the Colonial Revival style and set a more formal tone. In its early years, the estate was known as Prospect Hill Farm, and its lands were used to raise cattle.

Reminiscent of the work of English architect Sir Edward Lutyens, the Deborah Perry Dowse Coolidge House, 2 North Main Street (1914, #80), is Sherborn ' s only example of Edwardian country house architecture. The building is of stucco-covered masonry construction, and features a highly symmetrical facade with a projecting open porch supported by Tuscan columns. An unusual half-hipped roof surmounts the building, flairing out on the east and west sides and sweeping down to the first story. The building's architects are believed to have been the Boston firm of Pray, Hubbard, and White.

One of Sherborn 's most unusual estates is the H. G. Vaughn House, 5 Sparhawk Road (1915, #145), the work of the Boston firm of Little and Brown. Its prototype is said to have been the residence of the Dutch governor of Indonesia. The stucco-sheathed building, L-shaped in plan, is most distinctive for its four Dutch-inspired gables, whose sweeping curves and angular edges are framed by a copper border. The gables rise above a red-tile covered roof. On the main facade one of these gables surmounts a projecting five-bay central pavilion; on the pavilion's ground floor, a round-arched arcade fronts a fanlight-topped entrance. A carriage house with similar surface treatments is now a separate residence.

Among Sherborn 's most elaborate homes is Assingtgn, 172 Forest Street (1929-1930, #39), built as the centerpiece of a large estate overlooking the Charles River. Assington's architect, William Truman Aldrich, looked to the grandeur of mid-18th century English Palladian architecture for inspiration in designing this sophisticated and highly symmetrical building. A three-story, three-bay bow front with projecting entrance porch dominates the main facade,

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which is capped by a roof-line balustrade. Four neoclassical urns are placed atop a parapet crowning the bow front. The main facade overlooks a Versailles-inspired allee, cut through dense woods, that stretches to the river. To the west are formal gardens and tree-shaded pathways. A caretaker's residence and a teahouse are also part of the property.

NONRESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

Most of Sherborn's nonresident!al buildings are located in the town center and adjacent Edward's Plain. Like the town's residential buildings, few exceed 2 1/2 stories in height. No nonresident!al structures remain from the town's agricultural period before the Revolution. The first meetinghouse, built in 1680-1683, was replaced in 1726 by a larger structure; in 1770, that second building was itself enlarged, only to be demolished in 1829-1830. Nor do early mills, taverns, or schools remain from that period.

From the Federal and early industrial periods, however (generally Sherborn's most active period of construction), a number of structures churches, schools, taverns, and shops are extant. Of particular interest are those buildings related to Sherborn's early cottage industries.

At 53-55 North Main Street, a stone building, used since the 1860s as a private residence, once housed Henry Partridge's edge-tool factory (1795,#99). Constructed of locally quarried granite with walls as thick as 15 inches, this building was one of only a handful in the Edward's Plain district built specifically as a manufactory (most of the area's light industry was cottage-based). The building's three-bay-wide east gable end faces the street. Fenestration is accented by rectangular granite lintels and sills.

Situated on the eastern side of the town's common, on the top of the hill, is the First Parish Church's third meetinghouse, at 11 Washington Street (1830,#148~TBuilt by Hiram Jones of Dover, this Greek Revival-style clapboard structure has as its most distinctive features its temple-like pedimented portico and its octagonal steeple. The portico, projecting from the building's west gable end, displays four fluted Doric columns supporting a molded entablature and wide pediment. The building is framed by wide Doric corner boards and molded fascia boards. The octagonal steeple, topped by an octagonal spire, rests on a rectangular platform and is set into the main body of the building.

At the base of the hill, across from the First Parish Church, is Sherborn's second church, Pilgrim Church, 25 South Main Street (#127). Also built in 1830 as the result of a schism with the original church, this structure was

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probably originally Greek Revival in style, but it has undergone numerous renovations and alternations. In the 1850s, the building was given an Italianate treatment; rich surface features such as a high rusticated basement, a central pediment framing a Palladian-style window, and round-arched windows elsewhere in the building were added at this time. For many years, Pilgrim Church was known as the "Brown Church" its clapboards were apparently painted brown in the 1850s, perhaps to simulate more costly brownstone. In the 1920s, a Colonial Revival-style cupola replaced an earlier spire lost in a storm. That in turn was replaced in 1983 by a Colonial Re viva!-style spire.

At 60 North Main Street, the Plain School (1834, #103) is the only school house still standing of the seven district schools built in Sherborn during the 19th century. Like the First Parish Church, the school was built by Hiram Jones of Dover. It is a 1 1/2-story frame structure, with simple Greek Revival style corner and fascia boards; originally, there were separate entrances for boys and girls in the western gable. In the early 20th century, when a new central school was opened, the building was converted to a residence. At that time, round-arched attic windows and the separate doorways were removed. A bay window in the west gable end and a roof dormer were added.

Paul Tavern, at 41 North Main Street (#94), was created in the 1820s when a 2 1/2-story early Georgian residence, extensively enlarged ca. 1760, was again altered with the addition of two two-story wings. The west wing is believed to have been one of Sherborn's first schools, moved from its previous site near 15 North Main Street. In addition to a tavern, the building has also served as a store and a residence.

Sherborn's only surviving 19th century store and law office is still extant at 12 Washington Street. Known as Colonel Sanger's Store (#149), the Federal-style building was constructed ca. 1805. TTTs a simple five-bay building with later Italianate modifications, including a two-story, polygonal bay and paired sawcut brackets beneath the roofline. Its second floor housed a private academy during the 1820s.

The Paleman Bickford Straw Hat Factory (#87) was built in 1833 at 10 South Main Street. The Greek Revival-style building originally was a 2 1/2-story building with a steeply pitched gambrel roof and a small entry at one corner. Moved to its present location at 15 North Main Street in 1860, the building now has a hipped roof, Georgian Revival-style center entryway, and substantially altered fenestration. Because of these changes the building must be considered noncontributing.

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Adjacent to the First Parish Church on the Church Common, the wood-frame Town Hall, 3 Sanger Street, was built by Elbridge Boyden, architect of Worcester"7? Mechanics Hall (NR 1980), in 1859 (#123). It is a fine example of the Italianate style, and surface treatments include bold corner quoins, bracketed cornice, and fully enframed windows. Two and a half stories in height, the Town Hall is a simple rectangle with a gable roof. A large triple round-arched window with pediment above is centered in the gable. On the second floor, a variation of a Palladian window, crowned by a triangular pediment, dominates the facade. A square cupola located in the middle of the ridge consists of a platform base, a square midsection with square windows within round arches, a bracketed cornice, dome, and weathervane. Its details remain in an excellent state of preservation. The Town Hall is one of only a few unaltered public buildings by Elbridge Boyden in Massachusetts.

On Forest Street (#36), 1 1/2 miles from town center, the Holbrook Cider Mill was built in 1853 on a site that had previously held a gristmill. During the 19th century, the mill was called "the largest cider mill in the world," and its "champagne cider" was shipped to Europe and elsewhere. The original wooden mill was destroyed by fire in 1856; by the 1880s, mill owner John Holbrook had erected two long three-story brick utilitarian structures, the remains of which are still standing. The site of the mill is considered to have high archaeological potential for the presence of resources associated with the production of apple cider.

Post-Civil War Sherborn experienced little new construction. Most notable among nonresidential structures surviving from the Late Industrial period (1870-1915) are the Dowse Memorial Library, situated on a pedestal-like rise at 4 North Main Street (1914, #82), a Tudor Revival-style brick building dominated by a curvilinear Flemish gable, and the Center School, 21 Washington Street (1910, #150), a large brick structure that at one time had a striking Georgian Revival-style main facade (now obscured by a nondescript 1950 wing).

The Sudbury Waste Weir A, known locally as the Course Brook Gate House, is located south of Kendall Avenue (ca. 1876-1877, #901). It was constructed for the Sudbury River conduit by the Boston Water Works, and is a tiny utilitarian structure situated atop a conduit mount in the northeast corner of Sherborn, Built of red brick, its east and west gables are pierced by narrow openings outlined by limestone blocks. Bands of limestone enliven the facade.

ARCHAEOLOGY

The town of Sherborn has a high potential for significant prehistoric archaeological resources. At present, only five sites are recorded in the

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town; only one of these has a culturally and temporally diagnostic component (a cache of eleven Mansion Inn blades found on the west side of Farm Pond). Given the rural character of much of the town, the likelihood of site survival is very high. Areas of highest sensitivity are well-drained terraces and knolls around Farm Pond and Little Farm Pond as well as along the Charles River, Sewall Brook, and Boggestow Brook. Sites are also likely along portions of Dopping and Course brooks and on well drained terraces adjacent to wetland areas. Surviving sites are of significance since the patterns of prehistoric occupation in the upper Charles River drainage area are at present poorly understood.

Because of its low-density development and rural character, Sherborn retains a high potential for significant historical archaeological sites in at least three areas. The first of these is the area of initial settlement (1652-1776) in south Sherborn. This would include Main Street and adjacent well-drained land along the Charles River where there is a high probability for house foundations, outbuildings, and related features. Any such remains would be significant in understanding the town's establishment and first century of development. Secondly, Sherborn Center also contains a moderate degree of archaeological sensitivity, both in terms of features and relation to extant buildings and the potential for documenting structures that are no longer standing, such as the first meetinghouse (1680), the first school (1723), and the Sanger Tavern.

In addition, significant archaeological potential is probable around most of the buildings identified in the nomination. Finally, several industrial sites may contain significant archaeological potential; among these are the Capt. Joseph Ware/Ebenezer Ware mill site (1700-ca. 1820), the Leland mill site (ca. 1810 to 1920), the Nathanial Dowse Shoe Shop (1859-1907), and the Clark and Sons' icehouse complex (1850-ca. 1930).

METHODOLOGY

The Sherborn Multiple Resource Area nomination to the National Register of Historic Places is based on the Historical and Architectural Inventory of Sherborn, Massachusetts, conducted between March 15 and October 1, 1981. Edward W. Gordon, a preservation consultant based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was retained by the Sherborn Historical Commission to undertake the inventory. Assisting Mr. Gordon in the various survey tasks were members of the Sherborn Historical Commission: Mark O'Brien; Chairman, Susan Ware, Grace Shepard, Joseph Blanchard, Jean Homer, Chris Wheeler, and Penny Brown.

Properties listed in the Multiple Resource Nomination were selected from 175

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structures inventoried by the consultant. Criteria employed in determining eligibility for the National Register included outstanding architectural merit for a particular style or building type, a high degree of physical integrity, and historical significance. A further criterion was the likelihood that properties might yield important information about Sherborn's history and prehistory. The Sherborn survey is comprehensive in nature and includes residential, industrial, and ecclesiastical structures, governmental, and educational buildings, as well as monuments and sites representing virtually every phase of the town's history from first European settlement in the 1670s to 1940. In all periods, local vernacular as well as more high-style buildings were selected.

Historical research for the nomination relied on a local map of 1788, as well as county atlases of 1858, 1875, 1889, 1906, and 1958. In addition, local and statewide histories, early photographs, and oral histories by townspeople were used. Among the repositories consulted were the Sherborn Historical Society, Sherborn Library, the Framingham Historical Society, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts State House Archives, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, the Boston Athenaeum, and the Boston Public Library. In the case of a very few properties, deed research was conducted at the Middlesex County Court House in East Cambridge. Susan Ware's genealogical research assisted in the dating of many 17th, 18th, and early 19th century buildings.

Among Sherborn's richest sources of information are the 32 cartons of notes that town resident Margaret Dowse Buntin inherited from her grandfather, Charles Herbert Dowse (1853-1938). Mr. Dowse, who at various times during his career served as a state representative, superintendent of highways, and town clerk, was also Sherborn's unofficial historian. His research and records are invaluable resources for the local historical commission, and Mrs. Buntin has ensured their future usefulness by thoroughly cataloguing the collection.

The multiple resource nomination was drafted by Edward Gordon, preservation consultant, in 1982. A total of 24 individual structures and two cohesive historic districts are included in the nomination, with a total of 88 properties. The criteria for inclusion in the multiple resource nomination are consistent with National Register guidelines. Significant associations with local history as well as architectural merit were given consideration in the selection process.

Sherborn's two nominated National Register districts were determined based on historic patterns of use, visual cohesiveness, architectural quality, considerations of topography, and degree of representation of local history.

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The districts' boundaries were drawn with these considerations in mind, and are designed to include as many contributing properties of architectural integrity and historical significance as possible. Verbal boundary descriptions are included on the area forms for the two historic districts.

The Sherborn Center Historic District, located near the town's geographic center, comprises 31 structures and covers almost #5" acres. Primarily residential, the district has been the focus of town life since the 1680s, when a meetinghouse was constructed there. A number of public buildings, including the town hall, three churches, and a school, as well as a cemetery and commemorative structures, are also within the district's boundaries.

The Edward's Plain-Dowse's Corner Historic District, essentially a linear configuration north of the town center, includes 33 properties and encompasses &? acres. It is separated from the Sherborn Center Historic District by the railroad tracks and by a small concentration of modern commercial buildings. This area developed as a center for light manufacturing during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Some of the early outbuildings associated with light industry remain, but the district today is primarily residential. At its northern end, the district's somewhat irregular boundaries are due to the presence of three new properties whose location on a rise on the western side of North Main Street do not intrude visually upon the district. Two Greek Revival-style residences at the district's northernmost end provide a visual anchor for the district.

Special Considerations

Sherborn's resources include an unusual grouping of well-preserved early 18th century houses, scattered throughout the town. Until the late 19th century, Sherborn was not a prosperous community. The town never underwent massive rebuilding, and alterations to existing buildings were minimal. When Sherborn developed as an enclave for wealthy Bostonians during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, residents chose to save their 18th century houses as picturesque remnants of an earlier era, further ensuring the buildings' preservation. This large number of early buildings makes Sherborn's resources an important research tool for the study of the diffusion of early building techniques in a peripheral area of settlement.

The Sherborn Historical Commission was unable to obtain assessors' maps for the town of Sherborn. Rather, they used sections of a base map prepared in 1975 by the town's conservation commission. That base map, the only such map available to the historical commission, included property boundaries, but did not indicate the location of particular buildings within those bounds.

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Therefore, these were added by the local historical commission, who mapped building locations for both individually nominated properties and for districts. It should be understood that these maps, including the base map, are not the work of professional cartographers, but rather were the work of the volunteers—in particular, Chairperson Elizabeth Johnson—who make up the Sherborn Historical Commission. The district sketch maps were also compiled by piecing together the tracings of the base map. In addition, United States Geological Survey maps indicate both district boundaries and the location of individual properties.

SlCjrilf ICdflCG Sherborn Multiple Resource Area: Sherborn, Massachusetts

Period__ prehistoric __ 1400-1499 __ 1500-1599 _K_ 1600-1 699

1700-1 799__X_ 1800-1 899 _X-_1900-

Areas of Significance—Check and justify below_X- archeology-prehistoric ..__ community planning

archeology-historic agriculture architecture artcommerce communications

__ conservation __ economics

X- education _._ military __ engineering __ music -._X- exploration/settlement __ philosophy .-_X_ industry _x~_ politics/government __ invention

_JL. landscape architecture_X__ religion __ law __ science __ literature x sculpture

__X- social/humanitarian

.__ theater X transportation

other (specify)

Specific dates See individual v forms Builder/Architect Multiple: see individual forms

Statement of Significance (in one paragraph)

The Sherborn Multiple Resource Area represents a small rural town's historical development over the course of three centuries. Sherborn's development characteristics and the historical themes associated with the town are contained in numerous historic resources. Representing the late 17th through the early 20th centuries, the town's resources range from First Period houses to early 20th century summer estates; the majority, however, are well-preserved structures built in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The major themes and periods of significance identified for Sherborn trace its development from one of the Massachusetts Bay Colony's earliest settlements to an agricultural and cottage industry-based community in the 18th and 19th centuries and, finally, to the essentially rural town that it has remained into the 20th century, Sherborn today presents a remarkably intact microcosm of 19th century rural life. The physical record of this development remains embodied in the 24 individual structures and two districts accompanying this nomination a total of 88 properties. As a whole, the Sherborn Multiple Resource Area retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and feeling, and fulfills Criteria A, B, C, and D of the National Register of Historic Places at the local level.

1654-1776

Sherborn, Massachusetts, situated in the southern extremity of Middlesex County, is named for the town of Sherborne, in the county of Dorsetshire, England. Over time, this rural farming community's name has appeared as "Sherborne," "Shearborn," and "Sherburne." Its spelling was officially changed to "Sherborn" in 1852. The Nipmuck Indian name for Sherborn's territory was "Boggestow," still perpetuated in the name of a meadow, brook, and street. Nipmuck lands included most of the present counties of Middlesex and Worcester, as well as more land to the north and west.

Grants of land by the General Court to individuals commenced as early as 1643 and were continued at intervals for thirty years. Few, if any, of these grantees occupied their land. Capt. John Hull of Boston, a merchant and silversmith, purchased a grant of 500 acres from an original grantee in the 1660s. Hull's grant included what is today known as Sewall's Meadow, as well as much of Sherborn Center. Upon his death in 1683, Hull's daughter Hannah and her husband, magistrate and diarist Samuel Sewall, inherited Hull's land. Sewall and his wife visited their acreage in 1687, traveling 21 miles from Boston "to see the farm where we eat apples and drink cider," but they never lived on the property. Sewall's tenant, farmer Moses Adams, is believed to

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have been one of the first English settlers to build stone walls in Sherborn.

The first land transfer to actual settlers was made on May 8, 1652. The first settlers included Nicholas Wood and Thomas Hoi brook, who took possession of land on the west side of the Charles River on that date. By 1658, they had been joined by Henry Layland, Benjamin Bullard, George Fairbanks, John Hill, Thomas Breck, and Daniel Morse. Many of the town's first English settlers came from the Milton section of nearby Dorchester, and a number were related by blood or marriage to Hoi brook and Wood. They settled in the south and southeastern sections of Sherborn, near the Charles River. Some historians believe that these early settlers found the land in what is today known as the Stannox Farm area occupied by members of the Nipmuck tribe.

Sherborn's primary transport routes at this time were native trails, particularly the "Connecticut Path" from Framingham to the southwest, and several trails from Natick south along the Charles River. A bridge would not be built across the Charles until 1702 (at the intersection of Main and Farm Streets).

In 1662, fourteen Sherborn inhabitants petitioned the General Court for "liberty to be a town unto ourselves." But it was not until 1674 that Sherborn's population was sufficient to warrant incorporation as a town. By that year, the number of families had grown to twenty, and the population to about 110. Sherborn then included the present town of Holliston, as well as parts of Mendon, Framingham, Ashland, Hopkinton, and Natick. Shortly after the town's incorporation, the eruption of King Philip's War temporarily suspended all activities relating to the establishment of the town's government. No records exist for the town from 1676 to 1677, the years of King Philip's War, and some of Sherborn's citizens may have fled during these years. On February 21, 1676, Philip, leader of the Wampanoag Indians, led an attack near Sherborn against the English settlers who were encroaching on his lands. Medfield, adjoining Sherborn, was attacked early that day, and the Wampanoags then crossed the Charles River at the Great Bridge into the part of Boggestow that was then Sherborn, now Mill is. While no one was killed in Sherborn, among those killed in Medfield was Jonathan Wood, son of one of Sherborn's first settlers. Jonathan's brother, Eleazer, was also scalped, but he survived. King Philip's War lasted until August of 1676. During that year, the stone fort in Boggestow was attacked repeatedly. (The fort no longer survives.)

Between attacks, the colonists resumed their usual occupations. By 1679, an agreement with the Natick Indians was reached in which land in what is now Hopkinton was given to the Indians in exchange for land in South Natick

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adjacent to the Sherborn grant. At the town meeting in 1679, the first selectman was chosen. With peace restored, Sherborn residents began to construct roads and a meetinghouse. The area's fertile soil was ideal for agriculture, and most settlers were involved in subsistence farming. But the area was still a thinly settled frontier, and most inhabitants' lives were devoted primarily to survival.

Between 1680 and 1710, dwellinghouses were erected in virtually every part of Sherborn. A number remain scattered throughout Sherborn, including the Morse-Barber House, ,46 Forest Street (ca. 1674, #35) and the Daniel Morse III House, 210 Farm Road (ca. 1710, #33). The former building also served as Sherborn's first place of worship until ca. 1680-1683, when the first formal meetinghouse was erected. Also dating from the first years of English settlement is the Sewall-Ware House, 100 South Main Street 9 (ca. 1690, #136), believed built on Judge Sewall's land by his tenant, farmer Moses Adams.

Within ten years of King Philip's War, a tiny town nucleus had begun to evolve west of the Charles River. In 1680, the General Court set apart land 20 rods square for a church and common in what is now known as Sherborn Center. By ca. 1683, the first meetinghouse, located on a hill to the south of Edward's Plain, near Sherborn's geographic center, was completed with materials from the sawmill of Thomas Sawin (believed established 1679-1680 on Brush Hill Road C#2]). Daniel Gookin was the first minister, serving from 1685 to 1712. During the late 17th century, the church common included the Central Cemetery (#805), founded in 1689. In June 1694, Edward West, who had served as Sherborn's lay preacher until the erection of the first meetinghouse, was chosen to be the town's first schoolmaster. He taught classes in a private home. One month later, West died; it is said that Edward's Plain was named in his honor.

During the 1680s and 1690s, families that would play a prominent role in 18th and 19th century town life built houses and established farms in Sherborn. The Sanger family arrived in Sherborn Center from Watertown in 1685 (#154, #155), John Whitney built a house ca. 1678 on a site that would later hold the Paul Tavern (#94) on Edward's Plain, and the Twitchell family began farming on Pleasant Street in west Sherborn in the 1680s (#117).

Agricultural pursuits, including farming, grazing, and some subsistence dairying, continued to be the town's principal livelihood in the first three quarters of the 18th century. Between 1700 and 1775, Sherborn's history was characterized both in economy and population by steady growth; despite several boundary changes, the town's population grew from approximately 400 in 1700 to nearly 700 on the eve of the Revolution. By 1721, three years before

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Holliston was ceded from Sherborn because of a disagreement over the location of a new meetinghouse, the town's population was 408 inhabitants. No longer large enough for the growing population, the tiny meetinghouse of the First Parish Church was replaced by a second meetinghouse on the same site in 1726, further enlarged in 1769 by cutting the building in half and moving its west end forward to increase its length by twenty feet, and painted an "oring [orange] culler" in 1770. The church's minister in the middle of the 18th century, Rev. Samuel Porter (1734-1758), cultivated apples on land set aside for the minister's use in Sherborn Center the Porter apple, a sweet eating apple still grown in Sherborn today, was named in his honor. A number of other Sherborn citizens grew apples for home consumption, and several orchards were planted.

By the mid 18th century, the road from South Natick to Holliston had been platted. This thoroughfare served as the main route through Sherborn and was part of the stage route between Boston and Hartford and later, Route 16, a major Massachusetts roadway. Richard Sanger's Tavern, essentially a domestic building with a central-chimney, two-story plan (but, according to one early description, possessing as many as eleven exterior doors) was located near that route.

Despite these activities, Sherborn on the eve of the Revolution was still a thinly settled agricultural community, with no industry and only a lightly developed village center. In 1776, the town's population stood at 699. Church, common, cemetery, and a school built in 1728 on the south side of the meetinghouse formed the heart of Sherborn Center. A parsonage was located at 8 Washington Street (no longer extant). In addition to housing the aforementioned Rev. Porter, the building at one time served as house and school for Rev. Samuel Locke. In 1775, Rev. Locke built a dormitory ell for his students at the rear of his home. That ell was later moved to 12 Maple Street (#60), where it remains today. The Flagg House, 22 Washington Street (ca. 1740, #151), is one of the only structures from this period remaining in the town center. It was extensively altered in 1772, but has sustained few changes since that time.

1776-1870

Between the Revolution and the Civil War, Sherborn's economy continued to be agrarian-based, but economic diversity increased. Two factors bore strongly upon the community's development during this period, the most cogent of which was the evolution of home manufactories along the northern reaches of Main Street. This development took place between approximately 1780 and 1870. (The area where this development took place is being nominated to the National

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National Register of Historic Places Inventory — Nomination FormContinuation sheet qho n Maccrhucottc Item number fl Page

Register as the Edward's Plain-Dowse Corner Historic District, Area B. )

Sparsely settled until the Revolution, Edward's Plain more than doubled the density of its buildings by 1800: ten new structures primarily residences, but with associated shops and outbuildings suitable to cottage manufactories were added to the existing seven houses. Among the tradesmen working within this neighborhood between 1780 and 1860 were an edge-tool manufacturer, blacksmiths, gunsmiths, a coffin maker, wheelwrights, cidermill owners, tanners, whipmakers, and shoe manufacturers.

Deacon William Clark established a general store to the south of 84 North Main Street in 1800 (no longer standing) and by 1824, Captain Daniel Paul was keeping a tavern at 41 North Main Street (#94). The Paul Tavern was a popular stopover for travelers en route to Boston, 21 miles to the east. (A ca. 1790 milestone, located at the edge of the district, a short distance north of the tavern on North Main Street, pegged that distance for passer sby with its legend, "B 21.") The tavern included a second-floor ballroom and lodging for travelers; the building served as well as a general store and as living quarters for Capt. Paul 's family.

While a number of prominent late 18th and early 19th century Sherborn residents lived in this area, it was the Dowse family of leatherdressers who figured most prominently in initiating and maintaining the district's commercial character. Eleazer Dowse and his family fled Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the eve of the battle of Bunker Hill in 1775 and settled on Everett Street in Sherborn. Eleazer's son, Joseph, built a cottage at 100 North Main Street in the late 18th century, adding to it a large 2 1/2-story main block in 1844 (#110). With his sons, Benjamin, Joseph Jr. and Nathaniel, Joseph Dowse Sr. engaged in whipmaking, manufacturing intrictate 20-foot-long stagecoach whips entirely by hand. The whips were shipped to the western United States, as well as being sold locally. Even after the stagecoach passed out of service, whips continued to be made by the Dowses until 1876. At 91 North Main Street (1830, #108) and 106 North Main Street (1819, #112), Benjamin and Joseph Dowse Jr. later established their own whip shops on their house lots.

By the 1830s, some Dowse family members turned to manufacturing shoes. In 1837, Sherborn shoe shops manufactured 40 pairs of boots and 48,000 pairs of shoes, valued at $40,000. Nathaniel Dowse, grandson of Eleazer, built a 3 1/2-story shop in the fork of the road formed by Coolidge and North Main Streets in 1859. (The building is no longer extant, having burned in the early 20th century. The land continues in the Dowse family and has not been redeveloped; its potential for industrial remains such as tools and machinery

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United States Department of the InteriorNational Park ServiceNational Register of Historic Places Inventory — Nomination Form

Sherborn MRA ,_ Continuation sheet suborn. Massachusetts Item number 3

parts is high.) Dowse's shop of twenty employees handcrafted heavy plowshoes, called "brogans," which were sent by stage to the Natick railway station, shipped south, and sold to southern plantation owners. The Civil War temporarily halted the shoe business in Sherborn, and the Dowses stockpiled a large inventory of unsold shoes. The front rooms of the Joseph Dowse Sr. House have double beams reinforcing the floors; these were believed to have supported the accumulated weight of the heavy leather shoes during the war. Throughout the mid 19th century, Sherborn supported a dozen small shoe shops, but the largest were those of Nathaniel Dowse and Lowell Coolidge. Coolidge served an apprenticeship with Dowse and in 1854 built a sizeable shop, employing twelve workers, next to his house a 93 North Main Street (#109). The building that housed the shop is still in existence but after Coolidge produced his last shoe in 1908, it was moved to 171 Washington Street in East Holliston ca. 1910.

Other noteworthy enterprises housed in the small shops and attached ells of Edward's Plain included Lemuel Leland's gunshop (no longer standing) located beside his house at 61 North Main Street (ca. 1810, #104); Henry Partridge's edge-tool manufactory in atwo-story stone shop at 53-55 North Main Street (1795, #99), now a residence; Amasa Green's carpenter's shop at 54 North Main Street (ca. 1800, #100), where he specialized in the production of coffins; and wheelwright Jeremiah Butler's shop at 3 Butler Street (1817, #5).

Partridge's establishment was one of the few in the district built explicitly as a manufacturing plant and not simply housed in an outbuilding or ell. His shop manufactured pitchforks, cranberry rakes, adzes, knives, and axes. With his brother-in-law, Malachi Babcock, a blacksmith, Partridge developed a process for obtaining the tempered steel necessary for durable tools.

Amasa Green built his six-sided coffins and other furnishings in a barn adjoining his house (the barn is still extant). "Squire" Butler's shop, originally a separate building on his property, was moved and incorporated into the main house as an ell in the late 1840s. Butler supplied wheels for a neighboring carriage shop. The latter building survives at 29 Eliot Street, outside the nominated district (ca. 1820, #15). It has been substantially altered, and no longer retains integrity. Together with the shoe manufactories described above, these houses and outbuildings today represent a well-preserved enclave of early small scale industrial development.

Elsewhere in Sherborn, important mid-19th century light industries included the Fleming brothers' willow weaving on Maple Street (operated from 1848 to ca. 1900). At 18 Maple Street (ca. 1850, #62), Thomas Fleming built his Greek Revival -style house near a brook in order to facilitate osier-soaking for

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basket production. (The Fleming family continued to weave baskets until the end of the 19th century.) Jonathan Holbrook's cidermill, established in 1853 on Forest Street (#36), was known at one time as "the world's largest cidermill." Jonathan Holbrook was one of Sherborn's most successful entrepreneurs in the post-Civil War period. His cider mill's production began in 1853 at an initial output of 150 barrels per season. In 1856, the original mill was destroyed by fire. Holbrook replaced it with a brick structure and added more efficient grinding machinery. By 1868, his mill was producing 6,000 barrels a season. Prior to the railroad's 1870 arrival in Sherborn, Holbrook's cider was sent north to Natick for shipment. The growth of industry as a whole, but in particular the development of shoe manufacturing, was responsible for a rapid increase in Sherborn's population during the pre-Civil War years. Sherborn's inhabitants numbered 811 in 1820, 900 in 1830, 1,043 in 1850, and 1,400 by 1855.

The second significant factor affecting Sherborn's development particularly its community life was a religious schism within the First Parish Church that occurred in 1830. The schism was between conservative Trinitarians and a more liberal Unitarian faction. The debate was one common in Congregational churches throughout New Englandduring the early 19th century. In Sherborn, the result was the establishment of two separate congregations, making Sherborn for the first time into a two-church town. In 1830, the First Parish Church (11 Washington Street, #148) erected its third meetinghouse just north of the earlier building. The new structure was a Greek Revival temple-form building with a tall octagonal steeple, on the hill at the head of Edward's Plain. It was built to serve the needs of Sherborn's growing number of Unitarians. That same year, the Sherborn Evangelical Society, later the Pilgrim Church, erected its own building at 25 South Main Street (#127) for the more conservative Congregationalists, or Trinitarians.

The Evangelical Society's minister, Rev. Edmund Dowse, who served the church for 67 years (1838 to 1905), attracted parishioners from far beyond Sherborn's borders. He was also active in public affairs: he was chairman of the school committee for 65 years, a member of the state senate for two years, and chaplain of that body for 25 years. Rev. Dowse's house, a Greek Revival/Italianate house located at 25 Farm Road (#23), was built in 1838, the year Rev. Dowse assumed the pastorate of the Evangelical Society.

During 1830, the year the First Parish Church's new meetinghouse was being built, Sherborn held its annual town meeting in the second-floor ballroom of Ware's Tavern, 113 South Main Street (ca. 1780, #137). Ware's Tavern was one of three lodging places in town by 1830 (the other two were Paul Tavern, discussed previously, and Tucker Tavern, built in northern Sherborn in 1780

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Sherborn MRA Continuation sheet Sherborn. Massachusetts Item number Q___________Page 7

and extensively altered in the 20th century).

By 1835, Sherborn Center was firmly established as a central focus of the community's religious, political, social, and commercial life. With two churches anchoring its town common, Sherborn Center also included a temporary town house for town business, two general stores, and a straw hat factory. The general stores, built by the Sanger brothers, served the needs of both area farmers and tradesmen from the Edward's Plain neighborhood, adjoining the immediate town center. Joseph Sanger's store, which stood on what is now the lawn of the present Dowse Memorial Building, was built ca. 1805 and demolished ca. 1908; his Federal-style home, built in 1820, stood on the site of the Dowse Building itself. The store and law office of Col. Calvin Sanger, lawyer, real estate magnate, cotton factory owner, and storekeeper, is still extant at 12 Washington Street (ca. 1805, #149). It is a simple five-bay building with later Italianate modifications.

Bickford's Straw Hat Factory, now located at 17 North Main Street (1833, #87), was originally situated behind the First Parish Church. A finely detailed, 2 1/2-story, Greek Revival structure, it was built to house Paleman Bickford's straw hat works; however, the factory operated for only a few years. By 1855, the building was serving as a private school known as Bickford Hall (initial enrollment was 53 pupils). With the construction of Town Hall in 1859, which also contained a school and library, Bickford Hall's popularity waned. In 1873, the First Parish Church bought the building to house its minister and his family at that time, the building was renamed Unity Hall. It remained with the church until 1959, when it was moved to its present location near the railroad tracks.

Sherborn Center's citizens at mid century were people of rather comfortable means whose livelihoods were not exclusively derived from agricultural pursuits. Col. Sanger lived in an elegant Federal-style house at 8 Washington Street (built 1819, #147), constructed by local housewright Ebenezer Mann. Bowen Adams, master builder (active ca. 1800-1840) and keeper, within his home, of the town's "Agricultural Library," built his house at 27 South Main Street ca. 1815 (#128). George H. Clark, merchant and manager of Hawes' General Store (the social hub of mid 19th century Sherborn, now no longer standing), built the Italianate-style villa at 16 North Main Street ca. 1853 (#86). It is Sherborn's most distinguished mid-19th century residence. Clark's store housed the town's other library, the "Social" or "Proprietor's" library. (When the town constructed the Italianate-style Town Hall near the church common in 1859, both libraries were consolidated under one roof.) Inventor and landscape architect Jacob Pratt, designer of the rustic and romantic Pine Hill Cemetery (established 1851, #800), lived in the charming

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Sherborn MRA Continuation sheet Sherborn. Massachusetts Item number ft____________Page ft

cottage at 9 North Main Street (ca. 1830, #84). African explorer and naturalist Alfred Hawes lived at 31 South Main Street (ca. 1835-1840, #129). And Amory Babcock Jr., naturalist, taxidermist, and collector of specimens, lived at 123 North Main Street (ca. 1825, #115) for much of the mid 19th century.

1860-1930

In 1869-1870, the first railroad to travel directly through much of Sherborn--the Framingham and Mansfield line was laid out. (The Framingham-Milford rail line passed through the very southern edge of Sherborn as early as 1847, but had little direct impact upon most of the town's inhabitants.) It provided Sherborn farmers and manufacturers with more direct access to southern markets, especially to New York. Shoe manufacturing prospered in 1870, Nathaniel Dowse sent his sons south with a freight car full of shoes for sale as did cider manufacturing and cranberry harvesting. The rail lines ran directly beside John Hoi brook's brick cider mills, enabling him to ship his "champagne cider" to other parts of the United States and to Europe. Hoi brook filtered his cider through fine sand so that it could withstand long journeys without fermenting. At the Hoi brook mill's peak, it was said that as many as 60 rail cars stood on the sidings, full of apples from Virginia and other apple-growing centers, waiting to be pressed. Hoi brook's mills continued to produce cider until it was destroyed by a 1909 fire, its output surpassing 40,000 barrels per season by the close of the 19th century. Several years after the fire, another factory was built on the site. By 1875, as many as 150 marshy acres particularly on Sewall's Meadow and Dirty Meadow in western Sherborn were devoted to cranberry culture.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the town of Sherborn embarked on several municipal projects. Educational facilities in particular were expanded and centralized. In 1856, Thomas Dowse, of Cambridgeport, a leatherdresser formerly of Sherborn, bequeathed five thousand dollars to establish a high school, which became incorporated into the Town Hall of 1859 (#123). The Town Hall, a finely detailed Italianate-style building, was the work of well-known Massachusetts architect El bridge Boyden. In 1874, Sawin Academy, a huge brick Victorian Gothic structure, was built on the site of what is today the Sherborn Public Library, in the town center. (It was demolished in 1962.) The academy was funded by Martha Sawin of Natick, a descendant of Thomas Sawin, Sherborn's first sawmill operator. For many years, the school was among the best secondary schools in eastern Massachusetts. By the 1870s, Sherborn's school district encompassed seven district schools. Only one, the 1834 Plains School (#103), now used as a residence, survives. It is located at 60 North Main Street, in the Edward's

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Plain district. By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, the Center School was completed to satisfy the town's need for "one large central graded school" (ca. 1910, #150). This brick, stone, and cement building, located across from the Town Hall adjacent to the town common, was designed by the Boston firm of Gay and Proctor. (Closed as a school in 1981, the building now houses town offices.)

In 1898, the town erected an almshouse at 35 South Main Street. Shortly after its construction, the need for such a facility diminished to such an extent that the building was closed. For a time thereafter, it served as parsonage for the Pilgrim Church and in 1924 was sold to the Catholic Church. In August of that year, Sherborn's growing Catholic community was able to hold its first in-town services at the newly formed Chapel of St. Theresa (#130).

In 1914, the Dowse Memorial Building (#82), donated to the town by lawyer and businessman William B. H. Dowse, became the expanded home for the town library; it served that role until 1971, when a new modern library was dedicated on the site of Sawin Academy. The Dowse Memorial Building today serves as a private school for handicapped children. Adjacent to the Memorial Building, the Memory Statue, the work of Massachusetts sculptor Cyrus Dallin, was erected in 1924. The granite statue of a woman in Roman dress mourning a fallen hero was dedicated to those Sherborn citizens who had lost their lives in the country's wars. It was dedicated in 1924, the 250th anniversary of the town's incorporation.

After the Civil War, certain industries that had thrived in the antebellum period disappeared, and new businesses began to flourish. The last whips were made in Sherborn in 1876. The automation of large shoe factories meant an end to Sherborn's small-scale industry; Dowse's shoe manufactory burned in 1907 and was not replaced; Coolidge's shoe shop produced its last brogans in 1908. Ice cutting flourished in the post war years, particularly along Farm Pond in eastern Sherborn, and continued until the 1930s, superceded by sophisticated refrigeration techniques. With the railroad, dairying continued to be a successful Sherborn enterprise, as large quantities of milk were shipped to Boston. The Hoi brook cider mill and most of the orchards had ceased operation by the early 20th century; since 1919, Charles Herbert Dowse's roadside market, located close to the family orchards, has served primarily as a shop for weekend visitors.

Between 1900 and the years following the Second World War, Sherborn's size and much of its small-town character remained essentially unchanged: its population was fairly stable, varying between 900 and 1,800 people over five decades. A small number of wealthy Bostonians moved into Sherborn,

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establishing extensive estates along the river and expanding existing structures to suit their needs. Other than these new residents, the town expanded little. Today, Sherborn contains approximately 4,600 inhabitants. That Sherborn is located in a valley of low population density (including Sherborn, Dover, Medfield, Mill is, and Holliston) is the consequence of its location away from the major arteries that serve the highly developed axes of the Boston-Worcester and Boston-Providence areas. Sherborn does, however, maintain strong economic ties to Boston, and many of its residents today work in that city. Within Sherborn's borders are buildings, landscape features, and potential archaeological sites that reflect the various phases of Sherborn's history, from first years of settlement to the present day.

9. Major Bibliographical ReferencesSee continuation sheets.

10. Geographical DataAcreage of nominated property Sherborn: approx. 11,000 acres

Quadrangle name Framingham, Hoi 1 iston, Medf iel d ff.Natick Quadrangle scale 1:25,000UT M References 3 2 -. ' '. -:~ ----- .-. .See individual forms. __ A i i i i i i i i i i B

I I i i I I i I illZone Easting Northing Zone Easting Northing

C ____I I I . I I i I I I I I I I ! I I

El l I 11,1,11 1,1,11,1 F| , | | | , | i i | | , | , | I, |

G[_jJ I I , I . . I 1,1,11,1 H| , | I I , I , , I III,!,,!

Verbal boundary description and justification The Multiple Resource Area boundary is definedas the political/geographical bounds of the town of Sherborn, which reflect its historical development. Unless otherwise indicated boundaries for individually

_____nominated properties follow current lot lines. See individual forms.______List all states and counties for properties overlapping state or county boundaries

state___NA_______________code______county___________________code___

state____________________code______county____ _________ code

11 • Form Prepared By_____________________Elizabeth Friedberg, Preservation Planner Massachusetts Historical Commission , with

name/title Edward Gordon, consultant. Sherborn Historical Commission._____________________

organization Massachusetts Historical Commission____date March 1985______________________

street & number 80 Boyslston Street_____________telephone 617-727-8470________________

city or town____Boston____________________state Massachusetts 02116______

12, State Historic Preservation Officer CertificationThe evaluated significance of this property within the state is:

__________ national______ state_____x- local_________________________________

As the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89- 665), I hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service.

State Historic Preservation Officer signature

Executive Director, Massachusetts Historical Comnrf^ion. . t'tie state Historic Preservation Officer____________date

For NPS use only v I hereby/certifyjba_,this property is included in the Nationa>flegister

^*date

'"Keeper of the National Register /

Attest^Chief of Registration

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1983 0 - 419-311




Sherborn MRA Continuation sheet Sherborn. Massachusetts____Item number 9____________Page i

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PUBLISHED BOOKS, ARTICLES, AND PAMPHLETS

Baldwin, Thomas W., comp. Vital Records of Sherborn to the Year 1850. Boston, 1908.

Bardwell, Francis. Historical Sketches of Sherborn: Sherborn Tercentenary, 1652-1952. Sherborn Historical Committee, 1952.

Bigelow, William. History of Sherborn, Massachusetts. Mil ford, Massachusetts, 1830.———————————————

Committee of Fifty. "250th Anniversary of the Town of Sherborn." Press of Natick Bulletin, 1925.

Conklin, Edwin P. Middlesex County and Its People: A History. Vol 2. New York, 1927. ——————————————————

Coolidge, Deborah Perry Dowse. The Story of Sherborn. Sherborn, Massachusetts, 1918.

Downing, Andrew Jackson. The Architecture of Country Houses. New York, 1850.

Dowse, William B. H. Lawrence Dowse of Legbourne, England: His Ancestors and Connections in England, Massachusetts, and Ireland.Boston, 1926.

Edison Electric Company. "Certain Towns and Cities Adjacent to Boston and the Boston Electric System." Boston, 1909.

Forbes, Alien. Towns of New England and Old England, Ireland, and Scotland. Boston, 1936.

Forbes, Harriet. "Some Seventeenth Century Houses of Middlesex County, Massachusetts." Old-Time New England, vol. 29, No. 3, Oan. 1935.

Herr, Phillip, & Associates. "Final Report: Master Plan Study Committee, Town of Sherborn." Sherborn, Massachusetts, 1975.

Hurd, D. Hamilton. History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Vol. 1, pp. 680-708. Boston, 1889.

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National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form- .. .. . . Sherborn MRA 1XContinuation sheet <; hprhnrn Maccarhncpttc Item number Q____________Page

Lei and, Sherman. The Lei and Magazine; Or, A Genealogical Record of Henry Lei and and His Descendants. Boston, l«bO.

Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Registry of Deeds. Records of Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

______ . Probate Records of Middlesex County.

Morse, Rev. Abner. Genealogical Register of the Descendants of the Early Planters of Sherborn, Holliston, and Medway, Massachusetts.Boston, 1856.

Nason, Rev. Elias. A Gazeteer of the State of Massachusetts. Pp. 460-461. Boston, 1874.

"Obituary of Alexander Rice Esty," American Art Review, vol. 2, p. 175, 1881.

Shaughnessy, Anne C. A Guide to Sherborn. Sherborn, Massachusetts, 1974.

____________. The History of Sherborn. Sherborn, Massachusetts, 1974.

Sherborn Historical Society. "The Century Turns: Sherborn in 1900." Sherborn, Massachusetts, 1966.

Sherborn, Town of. Annual Reports, 1859, 1875-1876, 1908-1913.

. "Second Centennial of the Town of Sherborn, 1674-1874."Natick, Massachusetts, 1875.

Sturgis, Walter Knight. "Arthur Little and the Colonial Revival." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 32, pp. 147-163, May 1973.

Temple, Joseph Howard. History of Framingham. Framingham, Massachusetts, 1887. —————————————

Ward, Andrew H. A Genealogical History of the Rice Family. Boston, 1858.

Ware, Emma Forbes. Ware Genealogy. Boston, 1901.

Zimmer, Edward F. "Luther Briggs and the Picturesque Pattern Books." Old-Time New England, vol. 47, Nos. 3-4, Winter-Spring 1977.

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UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL

Alii son, J. F. "History of Sherborn." Paper read before the Bay State League, October 8, 1927.

Buntin, Margaret Dowse. File on Sherborn history and houses, assembled by Charles Herbert Dowse.

Framingham Historical Society. File on Alexander Rice Esty.

Ware, Susan. Sherborn Genealogical File.

MAPS AND ATLASES

1788. Map of Sherborn. Original in the collection of the Sherborn Historical Society.

1858. Map of Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

1875. County Atlas of Middlesex, Massachusetts. From actual surveys by and under the direction of F. W. Beers.Published by J. B. Beers & Company.

1889. Atlas of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Compiled from recent and actual surveys and records under the direction of the publishers. Vol. 2. Boston.

1906. Atlas of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Published by George H. Walker & Co., Boston.

1958. Master Plan of Sherborn, Massachusetts: Map. Prepared by Shurcliff and Merrill, Town Planners, Boston.

NPS Form 10-900-a (3-82)


National Register off Historic Places Inventory—Nomination FormContinuation sheet Item number

OMB No. 1024-0018 Expires 10-31-87

Page

Multiple Resource Area thematic Group

dnr-11

Name State

Sherborn Multiple Resource Area

Nomination/Type of Review

1. Assington

2. Buttonballs

Edwards Plain-Dowse's Corner Historic District

Morse-Barber House

Sewall-Ware House

Sherborn Center Historic District

Stannox Farm

t* Sudbury Waste Weir A

Bullen-Stratton- Cozzen House

10. .Clark-Northrup House

Date/Signature

Substantive

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NPS Form 10-900-a (3-82),

0MB No. 1024-0018 Expires 10-31-87


National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination FormContinuation sheet Item number Page

Multiple Resource Area Thematic Group

Name Sherborn Multiple Resource AreaState Middlesex County. MASSACHUSETTS

Nomination/Type of Review- -v "f"- SHB

11. Cleale, Joseph, House f***^\ > ^,•"•'• .'-' 'fit" - îî

12. Dowse, Rev. Edmund, House i» "**"

13. Fleming, Thomas, House V ? /*

14. Goulding, Eleazer, House : -^"--"•". - -•-•-*$.*

15. Holbrook, Charles, House ^» ^Bl

16. Leland, Deacon, William, * House t ,ff

17. Lewis, Charles D., House-.&'--•' - -

18. Morse, Daniel, III, House 5x t£iî'A

19. Morse-Tay-Leland-Hawes House s*?*'vj v "-.i:--C'"

20. Sanger, Asa, House r

Date/Signature

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NP;? Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018 Expires 10-31-87


National Register of Historic Places Inventory — Nomination FormContinuation sheet Item number Page

Multiple Resource Area Thematic Group

Name S.herborn Multiple Resource Arp.a State ____Middlesex County. MASSACHUSETTS

Nomination/Type of Review

21. Sanger, Richard, III, House

Date/Signature

Attest

22. Sawin-Bullen-Bullard House

23. Twitchell, Joseph, House

24. Vaughn, H. G. , House

25. Ware's Tavern

26. Woodland Farm-Leland House

27.

28.

29.

30.

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eeper

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National Register of Historic Places received NOV 2 ...

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